Executive Chief Medical Officer

Established in 1957, the medical center at the University of Kentucky is among the nation’s largest and most active academic medical centers. On campus, the center includes major facilities of UK HealthCare®, the university’s academic health system. UK HealthCare is operating 945 licensed beds spread across the flagship UK Albert B. Chandler Hospital, Kentucky Children’s Hospital and UK Good Samaritan Hospital, all located in Lexington. 

In addition, the clinical enterprise also embraces clinical activities of the UK colleges of Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Nursing, Health Sciences, Public Health, and Social Work; and multidisciplinary centers such as the UK Markey Cancer Center (the state’s only NCI designated comprehensive cancer center), UK Gill Heart & Vascular Institute, Kentucky Neuroscience Institute and Barnstable Brown Diabetes Center. Outpatient facilities included under the UK HealthCare umbrella are 7 main clinic sites and 100-plus outreach clinics in Central and Eastern Kentucky. 

In 2023, Robert DiPaola, MD, and Eric Monday, PhD, were appointed co-executive vice president for health affairs. Early in 2023 they led a refresh of UK HealthCare’s strategic plan to prioritize advancing subspecialty care, taking care of UK’s people and its community, and accentuating UK HealthCare’s uniqueness as an academic health system. A key feature of UK HealthCare’s leadership structure are triads of physician-nurse-administrator leaders reflecting a commitment to collaboration and working as a team to improve quality, safety and value. 

Position description

The University of Kentucky is seeking a dynamic leader to propel UK HealthCare to the next level of advanced medicine, continue to build on our extraordinary growth, and serve as the enterprise-wide Executive Chief Medical Officer (ECMO). The ECMO will be a physician-executive focused on hospital operations, the physician hospital practice and patient services/outcomes for UK HealthCare Chandler Medical Center, Good Samaritan Hospital, Kentucky Children’s Hospital, Ambulatory Services and Eastern State Hospital. 

This physician leader will work closely with hospital executive leadership, hospital nursing leadership, Healthcare College leadership, and the organized medical staff to ensure safe, timely and effective inpatient care is provided. The ECMO will work in a triad peer relationship with the Chief Nurse Executive and Chief Operations Officer for UK HealthCare for shared decision making and reporting. The position will report to the Co-Executive Vice Presidents for Health Affairs. 

The ECMO will oversee activities of the Chief Medical Officers and Associate Chief Medical Officers overseeing Inpatient Services, Perioperative Services, Ambulatory Services, Safety and the Children’s Hospital, director of capacity command as well as collaborative operational oversight of the emergency department, hospitalist and critical care division chiefs. The position will directly oversee with peer hospital relationships the inpatient dyads (Senior Inpatient Dyads and the front-line dyad teams). 

The ECMO will daily and in a focused manner deliver insight and expertise to improve inpatient flow, optimize the patient care platform, decrease care variation, and support ongoing quality and safety work. The position will develop strategic plans to improve and grow hospital and inpatient services, and support the work of the physicians, faculty and department chairs/chiefs and medical directors to optimize care. The role is responsible for executing the quality and patient safety plan for inpatient care. It will directly support the ongoing work of the enterprise quality and safety teams, lead value analysis and work to support peer review as it relates to inpatient activities. Will support and lead operations teams to improve efficiency and standardized care protocols and support EMR implementation/optimization as the physician voice for inpatient workflow. 

Qualifications

• MD, DO, or MBBS degree from an accredited institution and board certification in the appropriate specialty. Current clinical activity is preferred. 
• A minimum of 10 years of clinical experience and five years of progressive administrative/leadership experience in a research-intensive academic health system environment. 
• Comprehensive understanding of all elements of healthcare delivery, including strategy, business planning, clinical and non-clinical operations, and financial management. 
• Generates and encourages creative ideas, innovative thinking and imaginative solutions to issues or problems. Able and willing to solve problems from various points of view and make difficult decisions. 
• Able to consistently demonstrate and encourage a commitment of quality, patient safety, patient-centered care models, patient experience, faculty and team member engagement, clinical and operational productivity, and continuous improvement.

Skills / Knowledge / Abilities 

• Comprehensive understanding of all elements of healthcare delivery, including strategy, business planning, clinical and non-clinical operations, and financial management. 
• Generates and encourages creative ideas, innovative thinking and imaginative solutions to issues or problems. Able and willing to solve problems from various points of view and make difficult decisions. 
• Able to consistently demonstrate and encourage a commitment of quality, patient safety, patient-centered care models, patient experience, faculty and team member engagement, clinical and operational productivity, and continuous improvement.

Please submit CVs/resumes, inquiries, and nominations in confidence to Renee Breer, Senior Search Associate: [email protected]